The NextLeader Manifesto

Our Advisory board defined collectively the pilars that shape tomorrow’s needs for business leaders. Each of our courses illustrates these pillars in action, in the context of company challenges.

1- GLOBAL MINDSET

Decoding diverse culturesThe world is small: people, commerce, ideas pass fluidly from one corner of the globe to the next, with increasing speed. To successfully navigate this multicultural mosaic, the Next Leader needs a global outlook, characterised by openness and curiosity about the world, and shaped by thoughtful international exposure. The ability to decode different ways of thinking, behaving, decision-making, on an international scale or at an organisational level is an essential skill for the Next Leader.

2- SHARED LEADERSHIP

Working as a community of leaders
The all star leader, a well-rounded, solitary visionary, who masters each aspect of the business, is the model of the past. In today’s complexity, the Next Leader, cannot lead alone. But as part of a community of leaders, taking the lead in one area, following in the next. Knowing how to create and nurture a successful team leverage the skills of other leaders and teams, when to take the lead, when to support, will be critical.

3- AGILITY

Managing time-horizons and geographiesManaging the business over different time-horizons (1 year budgeting process, engaging 3 year investment while anticipating 5 year market trends) is increasingly important and difficult. Similarly, technological advances raise new questions about the global/local distribution of operations, which activities to centralise or delocalise, with implications on the business model itself. The Next Leader needs to demonstrate agility in considering diverse time-horizons and geographic multipolarity.

4- INNOVATIVE MINDSET

Using innovation as a lever for growth
Innovation drives growth. Disruptive innovation transforms industry. The Next Leader needs to understand both. But despite its buzzword status, innovation is not easy to integrate into a corporate agenda. Innovation by nature is neither efficient nor risk averse, which puts it at odds with corporate objectives. Disruptive innovation is even more difficult to reconcile, as it usually requires destroying the business to rebuild it. The Next Leader needs to know how to stimulate a culture of innovation within the organisation, and how to evaluate the different initiatives that the culture will engender.

5- SUSTAINABILITY

Driving long term stakeholder value
A leader is confronted by contradictory objectives (short term vs long term, global vs local, profit vs value, company objectives vs societal objectives, shareholders vs employees) which create dilemmas that are difficult to resolve. Within the programme, the Next Leader takes a value-based approach to leadership, funded upon a holistic view of building up the company to improve it for the next generation.